I was contacted by Dustin after he lost his ring. Dustin said his ring came off after tossing some muck from the pool skimmer over the railing behind his pool. He remembered hearing a sound like the ring hit the concrete. There were a few small trees and lots of underbrush to cover the ring. After I was shown the area I went to work working in sections. Almost 5 minutes later I found the ring.
I got a call from Kelli about noon on Wednesday asking if I could find her wedding ring. She and her husband had been married for nine months and the ring was designed by her husband and custom made. She first called my son in law, David Cartee, who wasn’t able to help because of other obligations that day but he recommended She give me a call. Kelli’s ring was lost in a lake off a dock in Andalusia Alabama. It had been a couple day since she lost it. She got in the water up to about neck deep and tried doing a visual search but the bottom was muddy and she had no luck. Listening to her story I felt sure the ring had sunk out of sight in the mud. I told her I would help. I was in the Pensacola area at the time and Andalusia was about 2 hours away. I felt time was of the essence because I didn’t know that lake and fearing the ring might settle deeper in the muddy bottom over time. The lake turned out to be a reservoir used by the power company to generate electricity and the bank was very steep. When I saw how quickly the grade dropped off I began to worry about it having vanished in the deep water or my recovery activity dislodging it to deeper water. It was most important to plan carefully so that would not happen. I took my time making sure the search coil didn’t touch the bottom and to carefully completely search the area before moving my feet to deeper water. Fortunately I got a good signal, the ring had settled on a slope in about 5 foot of water. I set my recovery scoop and both husband and wife stood by in anticipation. I peered into the scoop then looked up at them and smiled, her beautiful precious ring was recovered and returned to her finger. Smiling faces and no more worries all around!
